Santa Fe, NM

Sunday - Cochiti Lake is under an hour from San Antonio so we took advantage of this to visit a former colleague from the university. On other visits through NM, we didn’t have the opportunity to meet up but since we are in the area for a couple of weeks, there were no excuses. 

Monday - We spent the day exploring the plaza area of Santa Fe with the Marx’s. Very touristy area with expensive stores and lots of jewelry shops. Lunch was another tasty Hatch green chili burger for me. 

There were quite a number of street vendors selling mostly jewelry. It has been quite a while since I’ve been in Santa Fe. I think the last time was around 2005 for a Joint Tech meeting in Albuquerque. A couple of us visited Santa Fe between events. 

Cochiti Lake - CoE

Friday - Just past Santa Fe, is a Corp of Engineers campground located about 12 miles west of the I-25. Being a CoE campground, we got a 50% discount with the senior pass. Water and electric for $10/night. This is the view from our site.

Saturday - It was a beautiful morning. Clear skies and temperatures in the 60s (°F). This is the reservoir. We can’t see it from our site but I’m not complaining. Maybe I’ll dig out my e-bike and ride around the huge campground. 

I set up the sunshade and awning for the first time in a long time. The ground is pretty rocky so the stakes aren't very secure. If the wind picks up, the awning will need to be put away. I the picture, I’m set up for a test session. I recorded the test session and the video uploaded in about 15sec. StarLink is working well…

Cold Beer, NM - HH

Thursday - We made it out of Colorado into New Mexico. We were planning to just overnight in a rest area but they are kind of small. There was only 3 truck/RV parking spaces. It didn’t feel right to take one. So we moved on to a Harvest Host. It is a tavern in the “town” of Cold Beer. 

The “site” was not level so we only put out one bedroom slide. Less volume for the A/C to cool as it was in the upper 80s for most of the drive. And the RV overheated on every grade. I discovered that the auxiliary fan that installed a couple of years ago wasn’t running. I need to take a look at that to see why it’s not getting power. 

Tomorrow, we have about 180 miles to a CoE park where we will be staying for about 5 days before moving on to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. 

Aurora, CO - State Park

Wednesday - We arrived yesterday at Cherry Creek State Park in the early afternoon after a crowded drive through Denver. Friends of ours are staying here as well and it was wonderful to meet up with them again. It is a beautiful, green campground with full hookups. The first time we’ve had a 50amp connection since mid-May. Which is a good thing as it is in the 80s (°F) today so both AC units are running. 

StarLink is pretty fast though not as fast as in Wyoming where we were seeing over 450Mbps downloads. Fewer users in that particular area using the service. We head out tomorrow heading south into New Mexico.